Editorial | Get crime oversight committee going

WHEN PRIME Minister Andrew Holness spoke at the opening of Parliament after last month’s election, he reminded us of an agreement, signed in early August, with the Opposition, the private sector and civil society organisations on priority actions to address Jamaica’s problem of crime.

Pivoting to an affirming Opposition Leader, Dr Peter Phillips, Mr Holness said: “I don’t believe that the election has changed that consensus, and the consensus still stands. We are committed to it as the leader of the Opposition has indicated.”

That’s good. But it takes more than good words and declarations of intent for things to be done. There has to be action. Which, potentially, is what is good about the August document. It not only sets out priorities, it establishes timelines by which they are to be accomplished. Just as important, too, the agreement proposes a mechanism with which to monitor the benchmarks and to hold the implementers, primarily the Government, to account.

The idea, essentially, is a replica of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), which, without power to sanction, had enviable success in holding successive administrations to their commitments under an ambitious, and difficult, macroeconomic reform programme. That was possible because EPOC was transparent, and, in its periodic reviews, enabled it to win the public’s trust and respect. It had credibility. That, ultimately, gave it leverage and the capacity for moral suasion.

Against this backdrop, it is important that the parties to the consensus document on crime inform the public of the status of the “multisectoral and non-partisan committee”, which should have been in place a month ago and whose establishment the non-political partners committed to facilitate.

We anticipate an explanation that the Government and the Opposition were distracted by the campaign for the September 3 election, and that it has only been a month since the new administration has been in place, to which we make four observations. The first is that at the time of the signing of the document, all its signatories were aware that a general election was imminent. Mr Holness had signalled as much.

Second, while there are some new faces in the executive, it is largely the same people in charge of the Government and in positions to pursue the benchmarks. Most critically, Mr Holness is still the prime minister (PM), Horace Chang remains the national security minister, Major General Antony Anderson continues to be the commissioner of police, and Lieutenant General Rocky Meade still commands the army. Marlene Malahoo Forte, the attorney general, and the Government’s legal adviser, still has her job, as does Delroy Chuck as justice minister. Nigel Clarke, the finance minister, whose management of the purse strings is vital to this project, continues to have the confidence of the PM. In other words, there ought to be no learning curves on this front.

Further, while Dr Phillips is leaving as president of the People’s National Party (PNP), he, up to now, remains the leader of that party, on whose behalf, and in his constitutional role as leader of the Opposition, he made a solemn commitment from which we do not expect a full-scale retreat. Finally, having the oversight group in place at the beginning of the process ensures the integrity of the project from the start.

There are already four benchmarks on which the oversight committee should be making definitive declarations about outcomes, and another, to be achieved by year end, on which it should be providing status reports. By the end of the third quarter of this year there should be:

• An announced date for the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) to begin operating as a fully independent policing body;

• The Jamaica Constabulary Force should also have a strengthened inspectorate, audit and anti-corruption capabilities as part of a wider process of reform and modernisation;

• There should be new regulations for the transparent appointment of qualified people to the boards of public bodies; and

• A task force should be already reviewing the procurement laws to close loopholes through which public resources may be siphoned to criminals.

Over the next quarter, the constabulary should have a system for training and certifying its members in community policing; all of MOCA’s operating regulations should be in place; and a review of the standards and human resources needs at Jamaica’s correctional facilities.

The public does not just want to be told that these things have been done. That is a well-worn approach that gasps for credibility. We expect the oversight committee, with a properly resourced secretariat, to appropriately invigilate the benchmark to ensure they meet the intent and spirit of the undertakings and are not in conflict with the rights of Jamaicans. There is real work to be done.